Edison powers up in Canyon Country

Generators restore electricity to 125 homes

Canyon Country residents received a surprising source of power when Southern California Edison hooked up generators to temporarily restore electricity to 125 homes.

Houses on Highpoint Place in Canyon Country lost power at 1 p.m. Monday.

By 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the lights blazed back on after Edison workers hooked up several generators, resident Amanda Branam said Wednesday.

"I was really surprised they brought in the generators because my thinking was they wouldn't bring those in unless the power was going to be down for an extended period of time," she said. "They used those for about 12 hours."

An Edison official said the company does not provide backup generators to remedy power outages in neighborhoods, but Monday's circumstances called for it.

"A pole failed over the weekend that happened to be an Edison pole," said Anna Frutos-Sanchez, a Southern California Edison spokesperson. "Because of the sensitivity of the equipment that failed, there was no accessibility to where we had to make the repairs. Based on our crew's discretion and the circumstances, we deemed it necessary to provide generators. It is not a practice."

Edison secured the generators to restore power to the homes only because crews anticipated the outage could last up to three days, Frutos-Sanchez said.

"Initially, I think there were 1,357 people who were out of power, and when we switched circuits it immediately restored 587," she said. "The remaining 770 were probably the customers who could have been without power for three days."

Edison's generators successfully restored power to her house without producing any noticeable effects, Branam said.

"We didn't notice the difference, everything functioned normally," she said. "One of my neighbors had a generator for his house and as soon as (Edison) hooked up the big generators, he took his off. They must have been working pretty well."

All customer power was restored by Wednesday afternoon except for power at the Boston Market and Jack In The Box on Bouquet Canyon Road, Frutos-Sanchez said.

"Our men worked around the clock to restore energy," she said.

Edison restored power to the houses on Highpoint Place and removed the generators by 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Branam said.

"I'm just glad it was a temporary thing, she said. "It makes you appreciate being able to walk in a room and flip on the light. It was definitely nice that (the generators) made it pretty normal."